Amos relaxes for the first time since he arrived. He's definitely a man who likes action, and having a plan in place seems to calm him.
I pull out the mattress from under Kyra's bed, and she stirs, turning her sleep-flushed face to me.
"What are you doing?"
I smooth her hair down and kiss her on the forehead.
"Sam is going to stay with us tonight. He's not feeling very well. I'm making up the bed for him."
Kyra creases her forehead. "Is he going to be okay?"
"Yes, sweetie. I promise. He's just a little bit sick. Amos is new at this, so he brought him over here. But Sam is fine. It's a bit like when you got sick last year. Do you remember?"
She scrunches up her face. "Poor Sam. He can have Bunny to make him feel better."
She relinquishes her favorite soft toy and holds it up for me.
"That's sweet, honey. Sam will like that. Now, you get back to sleep."
She snuggles into the bed and rolls over. By the time I've made up the mattress, she's fast asleep.
I pull back the covers of the spare bed, and Amos carries the sleeping Sam through. He lays him on the bed and tucks him in with the toy rabbit.
"I'm going to check his temperature again," he whispers.
It's only been twenty minutes since we last took it, but I don't point that out.
Amos gets the temperature reader and points it at Sam's forehead.
"100.6. It's dropped."
"That will be the Tylenol getting to work."
"Come on." I indicate the door. "Leave him to sleep."
Amos reluctantly follows me out of the room and back to the kitchen.
"I guess you're not going to sleep tonight, so we might as well have a hot drink."
"I'm sorry, Alana. You go back to bed if you want to."
I check my watch. It's just after midnight. But I'm awake now, and I don't want to leave Amos while he's still so agitated.
"I'll stay up with you for a bit."
Instead of coffee, we opt for chamomile tea. I put the kettle on to boil and lean against the kitchen counter. Amos's gaze slides down my body and widens when he gets to my bare legs. Only then do I realize I still haven't got pants on.
Amos goes still, and I tug my t-shirt down. "I'll be back in a minute."
I grab a pair of sweatpants from my room and tug them on. When I get back to the kitchen, Amos has poured the tea into two steaming mugs. We take them through to the living room and sit on the couch.
Amos sits down heavily and huffs out a long breath. "That was the scariest moment of my life. And I've seen some scary shit in my time."
"It's the worst when they're sick, especially when you can't do anything about it."
I sit down next to him, and our thighs brush. A tremor of heat shoots up my body, and I try to ignore it.
"I was just so scared," he says. "Six weeks ago, I didn't know Sam existed. Now..." He brings a fist to a spot on his chest above his heart. "It feels like a piece of my heart has been taken out, divided in half, and he's carrying the other part of it."
